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msliz's review
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.25
fleursbooks's review
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.25
amym84's review against another edition
3.0
A Lover's Discourse is the story of an unnamed Chinese woman who moves to Britain to work on her dissertation. While feeling adrift and alone in a new place as a foreigner she meets a landscape architect and they begin to build a life together. The story plays out like a recollection of the pair with a heavy focus placed on "her". The characters formal names are never reveals which I think lends itself well to including the reader within the story.
I listened to an audiobook of A Lover's Discourse and honestly, I think it was the narrator Cindy Kay who really kept my attention rapt within the story. Her voice is crisp and clear and she moved from the "her" to the "him" characters with ease enough that I often forgot there was only one person narrating the story. It was a little difficult as first to discern the beginning of each new segment of story. As each chapter, or segment, begins with a small bit of rumination or dialogue from the segment as a header. At first it seemed like the book was repeating itself. It took me a couple times to realize these instances were headers kind of a preliminary introduction into what is going to be discussed next.
The story was not what I was really expecting though. With a title like A Lover's Discourse I just maybe expected more of a romance and while there is a romantic story, it just doesn't unfold the way I'm typically used to my romances unfolding. The story is very seated in reality, it's not flowery it's not overly fantastical. I suppose if I'm looking at the story clearly it's probably one of the most true to life relationships I've ever read about.
I was really interested in the focus placed on "her" experiences of emigrating to Britain. I loved her ruminations on what it means to be a woman on her own in a foreign country with no family. Pretty much starting completely over. I loved the frank discussions of language and culture differences between "her" and "him". Although I never really warmed up "him" and therefore, I wasn't ever really keen on their overall relationship. Like I said it's not an overly romantic or flowery type story, but I didn't feel their connection. I felt like there was a disconnect between what each of them wanted out of their life together that never really gets solved. Maybe that's a commentary on relationships in general. How it is difficult to be 100% on board with your partner in all their endeavors and needs and desires without sacrificing some of your own and vice versa.
Overall, it was an interesting, sometime eye-opening read. This is the first book I've ready by Xialou Guo, but I'm certainly interested in checking out her other works.
*Copy provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
I listened to an audiobook of A Lover's Discourse and honestly, I think it was the narrator Cindy Kay who really kept my attention rapt within the story. Her voice is crisp and clear and she moved from the "her" to the "him" characters with ease enough that I often forgot there was only one person narrating the story. It was a little difficult as first to discern the beginning of each new segment of story. As each chapter, or segment, begins with a small bit of rumination or dialogue from the segment as a header. At first it seemed like the book was repeating itself. It took me a couple times to realize these instances were headers kind of a preliminary introduction into what is going to be discussed next.
The story was not what I was really expecting though. With a title like A Lover's Discourse I just maybe expected more of a romance and while there is a romantic story, it just doesn't unfold the way I'm typically used to my romances unfolding. The story is very seated in reality, it's not flowery it's not overly fantastical. I suppose if I'm looking at the story clearly it's probably one of the most true to life relationships I've ever read about.
I was really interested in the focus placed on "her" experiences of emigrating to Britain. I loved her ruminations on what it means to be a woman on her own in a foreign country with no family. Pretty much starting completely over. I loved the frank discussions of language and culture differences between "her" and "him". Although I never really warmed up "him" and therefore, I wasn't ever really keen on their overall relationship. Like I said it's not an overly romantic or flowery type story, but I didn't feel their connection. I felt like there was a disconnect between what each of them wanted out of their life together that never really gets solved. Maybe that's a commentary on relationships in general. How it is difficult to be 100% on board with your partner in all their endeavors and needs and desires without sacrificing some of your own and vice versa.
Overall, it was an interesting, sometime eye-opening read. This is the first book I've ready by Xialou Guo, but I'm certainly interested in checking out her other works.
*Copy provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
pallavi_sharma87's review against another edition
4.0
****4.0****
Shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize 2020
This follows a Chinese woman and her relationship with a German man in Britain. Composed of small stories from the woman's life which were interesting.
This is more about the characters. As the stories proceed we get to know this couple more and more. They do make us believe that both are a bit snobbish, incompatible and have a lot of conversations which feels like fights.
A very different style of writing for me. A reflective approach in the narration which was a great reading experience.
Happy Reading!!
Shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize 2020
This follows a Chinese woman and her relationship with a German man in Britain. Composed of small stories from the woman's life which were interesting.
This is more about the characters. As the stories proceed we get to know this couple more and more. They do make us believe that both are a bit snobbish, incompatible and have a lot of conversations which feels like fights.
A very different style of writing for me. A reflective approach in the narration which was a great reading experience.
Happy Reading!!
samwreads's review against another edition
4.0
Clear, direct, often laconic fiction that could easily pass as a memoir or something between a memoir and essays. I found it a real pleasure to read. Perhaps most impressive is the way it really captures a worldview, a way of being and living that is at least a step removed from familiarity for me. With regards to language and identity I don't know that it breaks new ground philosophically, but the marriage of these musings to the experience of a (highly educated) immigrant and her relationship with a man from a very different background was novel and often thought-provoking.
ruxandra_grr's review against another edition
2.0
This book was... ok. It split itself off in too many directions and themes, from the notion of home, living, to cultural (and language) differences, to gender dynamics in heteronormative land, to discussions of anthropology and art - original work and copies -, being unmoored, being uprooted, architecture vs landscape, etc. All of these things can work together and they are loosely connected in a web of meaning, but I never felt that they added up to something more, something insightful.
We follow her, the first person narrator, a Chinese woman who is doing her PhD in London after the death of her parents. Honestly, the most interesting part was her PhD thesis about Chinese laborers doing amazing reproductions of the great western canon of paintings. But there was not enough of that. Instead, lover's discourse and all, every little chapter (well, the chapters are big but are composed of little moments or vignettes, Idk, I listened to it on audio so I don't know how it looked in a physical copy) starts with a snippet of conversation, mostly between her and her German-Australian lover, and then proceeds to show you the context and the conversation the snippet is taken from.
The dynamic between her and him is a bit obnoxious, there are various cultural conversations happening, but they feel superficial, and he has a tendency to be condescending and all intellectual. Even if she is all intellectual as well, but more of a romantic.
I did not connect emotionally to the material. And that's surprising because there were a lot of elements that I should have responded to, for sure. The two live for a while on a narrowboat on the London canals, and the bit that is actually mentioned is the one where I spent my first night on a narrowboat (like, ridiculously close, I checked Google Earth), and I drove that freaking boat in Regent's Park and all of the challenges of boat living (as the delights) were quite familiar to me: toilet stuff, water reservoir stuff, gas for cooking stuff, etc.
But our main character never seemed quite happy there, so the book didn't evoke for me that sense of wonder of staying for a while in a liminal space like the water, wind in your hair when you drive the boat, the weird culture around narrowboating (I guess that's why I am writing about all that - which is the reason I picked this up in the first place). Also, my ex, who owned the boat, had a bit of a condescending air about him, sometimes obvious in conversation, and we were also from different countries. Also, at some point, they visit Berlin, which is where I live! And at no point did I feel that much about the material. It felt detached to me.
Would I try something else by Xiaolu Guo? Maybe, I might! 2.5 stars.
We follow her, the first person narrator, a Chinese woman who is doing her PhD in London after the death of her parents. Honestly, the most interesting part was her PhD thesis about Chinese laborers doing amazing reproductions of the great western canon of paintings. But there was not enough of that. Instead, lover's discourse and all, every little chapter (well, the chapters are big but are composed of little moments or vignettes, Idk, I listened to it on audio so I don't know how it looked in a physical copy) starts with a snippet of conversation, mostly between her and her German-Australian lover, and then proceeds to show you the context and the conversation the snippet is taken from.
The dynamic between her and him is a bit obnoxious, there are various cultural conversations happening, but they feel superficial, and he has a tendency to be condescending and all intellectual. Even if she is all intellectual as well, but more of a romantic.
I did not connect emotionally to the material. And that's surprising because there were a lot of elements that I should have responded to, for sure. The two live for a while on a narrowboat on the London canals, and the bit that is actually mentioned is the one where I spent my first night on a narrowboat (like, ridiculously close, I checked Google Earth), and I drove that freaking boat in Regent's Park and all of the challenges of boat living (as the delights) were quite familiar to me: toilet stuff, water reservoir stuff, gas for cooking stuff, etc.
But our main character never seemed quite happy there, so the book didn't evoke for me that sense of wonder of staying for a while in a liminal space like the water, wind in your hair when you drive the boat, the weird culture around narrowboating (I guess that's why I am writing about all that - which is the reason I picked this up in the first place). Also, my ex, who owned the boat, had a bit of a condescending air about him, sometimes obvious in conversation, and we were also from different countries. Also, at some point, they visit Berlin, which is where I live! And at no point did I feel that much about the material. It felt detached to me.
Would I try something else by Xiaolu Guo? Maybe, I might! 2.5 stars.
hymne's review
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
4.0
Structurally interesting and emotionally profound and strong.